Over the weekend, the New York Times Magazine published an article about Minecraft and education called “The Minecraft Generation.” In the article, author Clive Thompson announced a Minecraft world created cooperatively between NYT visual columnist Christoph Niemann and Hypixel.
“Christoph Niemann, our visual columnist, worked with Hypixel, a team of professional Minecraft tinkerers based in London, to build a Minecraft world just for The New York Times Magazine,” said Thompson. “To play, you’ll need a computer with Minecraft and a child who’s familiar with the game.” There’s a preview video of the world embedded in the article. It looks pretty great.
To get to the NYT Minecraft world, you need to get into Minecraft, choose multiplayer mode, click on Direct Connect, and type in the server address nytmag.hypixel.net.
In other Minecraft and education news, Minecraft: Education Edition has announced that in May it will have a Beta program for schools. More than 100 schools will participate. Then, in June, there will be a free early-access program for teachers. Minecraft: Education Edition wants feedback from teachers before they launch the official Education Edition. There are already a lot of resources for teachers at education.minecraft.net, including lesson plans. There’s also a Minecraft Mentors program that connects teachers with other educators.
Minecraft: Education Edition will include secure student logins and ways for teachers to track what kids are doing. It will also incorporate a portfolio feature that will let kids take photos of their projects to demonstrate their progress. And there are special management features for teachers as well as an enhanced multiplayer mode. The multiplayer mode will allow up to 30 student to work together without a separate server.
When Microsoft: Education Edition officially launches, it will run on Windows 10 and Mac OS X El Capitan. Teachers and schools will have to purchase either direct or volume licenses.
